OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The field search for a missing hiker in Olympic National Park has been suspended after teams failed to find any new clues Sunday.
Port Angeles resident James Thomas Griffin, 60, was last seen by hikers at about 4 p.m. Dec. 22 at the Olympic Hot Springs but disappeared on his way back to the trailhead, according to park officials.
“The field search will be suspended after today, but the investigation will continue,” said Jacilee Wray, acting park spokeswoman.
Wray said the park will continue fielding tips in hopes of finding Griffin.
Anyone who may have seen Griffin at the hot springs or on the trail Dec. 22 is asked to phone the park at 360-565-3115.
Sunday’s effort started at first light and was suspended at about 4:30 p.m.
Griffin’s backpack and other belongings were found during a search Thursday about 50 feet off the trail and a half-mile from the trailhead, where Griffin’s blue Subaru Forester was parked.
A search has been conducted daily since Wednesday night.
The size of Sunday’s effort was scaled back from Saturday’s search, and no dogs were used, Wray said.
Dogs were no longer useful in the search because abundant rain likely has washed away any scents, she said.
Wray said that after six days and nights, the chances of Griffin’s survival are very low, and recovery of his body is uncertain.
“Sometimes people are not recovered,” she said.
Park officials are looking at two possible scenarios to explain the circumstances surrounding Griffin’s disappearance, Wray said.
Griffin may have suffered a medical event that left him disoriented and he wandered off, or he became hypothermic and disoriented due to the cold, wet conditions in the park, she said.
According to information provided to the park, Griffin had no medical issues except for a previously injured leg and was not known to be distraught over any personal issues, Wray said.
“His friends said he was in good spirits and looking forward to Christmas,” she said.
Seven National Park Service employees broke into three teams Sunday and searched an area 500 to 700 feet from where Griffin’s daypack was found.
Several of Griffins friends also took part in the effort Sunday, as they had Thursday and Friday.
Sunday’s search expanded Saturday’s area of focus, and included Cougar Creek and Boulder Creek, two steep drainages nearby, she said.
She described the areas as heavily vegetated with downed trees, and searchers were checking under bushes and logs.
Wray said the slope near Boulder Creek ends in a cliff dropping into the creek itself, which cannot be searched because the terrain is too dangerous.
“At this time of year, the water is very high — a fast-flowing creek, rapid and steep,” she said.
On Saturday, a larger team of 21 searchers with dogs completed a grid search in a 500-foot radius around the location where the backpack was found.
The National Weather Service predicted temperatures in the area overnight Sunday would drop to the mid-20s with a possibility of snow.
However, the weather system that produced rain this weekend has moved east.
“It will probably remain dry,” said Josh Smith, forecaster for the National Weather Service.
In the past week, the area has seen 0.79 inches of rain, and temperatures have dropped into the low 30s at night, as measured at the William R. Fairchild International Airport, about 12 miles north of the search area.
Griffin was not prepared for an overnight stay, park officials have said.
However, he was very well prepared for the day hike, Wray said, with two camp stoves and a pack of fresh batteries which searchers believe was for a headlamp.
“He was an organized hiker,” she said.
Wray said items from Griffin’s backpack were found set up around two logs.
A towel was draped over the backpack near one log, and a few feet away a can of soda, a coffee cup and a rehydrated bag of freeze-dried food were set up on another log, she said.
Wray said the scenario was unusual because people who reach a point so close to their vehicle are usually eager to get to it and get home, and do not stop for a meal in the dark.
Given that hikers last saw Griffin at the hot springs at 4 p.m., park officials determined he would have been walking back down the trail after dark last Monday.
Sunset was at 4:23 p.m. on Dec. 22.
Friends who were supposed to meet Griffin for a Christmas Eve dinner reported him missing Wednesday when he didn’t arrive and could not be located at his home.
Park officials were told that Griffin often hiked the 2.5 mile trail to the hot springs and knew the trail well but made slow progress due to an earlier leg injury.
When he was seen at the hot springs by hikers, he had his backpack, but his clothes were in a pile, so it is not known what he was wearing.
However, his friends reported that he usually hikes in jeans and a flannel shirt.
On Friday, 10 people from the park and Olympic Mountain Rescue were aided by three state Department of Emergency Management search dogs and their handlers.
On Saturday, Tacoma Mountain Rescue and Clallam County Search and Rescue had three people each searching the area, along with eight people from the Jefferson County Search and Rescue, two from Olympic Mountain Rescue and five from the park.
Two dog teams from Pierce County also assisted in the search.
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Reporter James Casey, Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb and Managing Editor Leah Leach contributed to this story.
